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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Seminar Also see Susan's reviews of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Mother Courage and Her Children
Jerry Whiddon, Round House's artistic director for 20 years, returns to stage Rebeck's story of overeducated and underemployed writers in New York, competing with each other to earn the favor of Leonard (Marty Lodge), a famous author and editor who's seen and heard everything. The members of the class are tightly wrapped Kate (Katie deBuys), a perfectionist who's been rewriting the same story for six years; hangdog Martin (Alexander Strain), Kate's deeply insecure longtime friend; Douglas (Tom Story), a supercilious fellow who talks about concepts like "interiority and exteriority"; and Izzy (Laura C. Harris), attractive and not afraid to use her looks to get what she wants. The five characters pair up in a constantly shifting series of configurations as Leonard pontificates and searches vainly to read something that excites him. Whiddon and Lodge have worked together many times, and their rapport comes through in Lodge's deceptively easy portrayal. He presents Leonard as a low-key cynic, battered by life (he's constantly traveling to distant war zones) and determined to knock some sense into these naïfs. The other actors have their moments—Strain's shaggy-dog quality, Story's smug lack of self-awareness—but this is Lodge's show. James Kronzer makes the most of the wide Round House stage to create another elegantly appointed set: a lavish Upper West Side apartment owned by Kate's family. Round House Theatre
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